disable wallpaper

[James Klock]

At 12:20 PM 7/22/98 -0700, Andy Mutch wrote:
>I still think the easiest way to fix this problem is to set the wallpaper
>file to read-only.  This will keep people from saving the file in the
>first place[...]

It should be noted that, under NT 4.0 at least, the fix Andy suggests
doesn't work as advertised:
Because the wallpaper is set according to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control
Panel/Display key in the registry, either through the Display Control
Panel, or by using the Netscape "Set as Wallpaper" option, or even manually
editing the registry.

I had suspected that the fix Andy suggested might work if I had already set
that key to read C:\WINNT\Netscape Wallpaper.bmp as my wallpaper.  To test
this, I created a read-only file in my WINNT directory, called "Netscape
Wallpaper.bmp".  I then changed the wallpaper (using the Display Control
Panel) to some other file, which worked no problem.  Not a critical flaw,
but something to be aware of.
I then used Netscapes' "Set as Wallpaper" feature, which caused Netscape to
crash with an Access Violation.  This access violation crash appears to
occur regardless of what the Wallpaper is set to before trying to change it
from Netscape.

So, under Windows NT 4 at least, setting that file as read-only will
prevent users from changing the wallpaper, but at the expense of crashing
Netscape if they try.  You may find that preferable, who knows.  But I
personally advocate using a System Policy or Mandatory Profile to prevent
the user from making changes to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control
Panels/Display key.  I haven't tested either of these (I don't even
remember the details of doing so at the moment...) but I believe it's been
discussed on Web4Lib before-- check the archive.

James